bucy wrote:

Under the new plan, called Pleistocene "re-wilding," close cousins and counterparts of the lost beasts, mostly from Africa, would be released into large, protected tracts of land and allowed to roam freely. Ideally, such actions would not only give parts of North America back an approximation of their long-ago megafauna diversity, they would also help save animals such as the African cheetah from extinction.

I heard about this on All Things Considered the other day. Wow ... just ... wow.

This is silly. The purpose of coservationalism is to make the planet sustainable for human life. No, we're not going to live happily along with things that eat people and no, its not reasonable. I presently think we ought to be looking at shark control technology in Florida. Putting free range Lions in America will absolutely result in dead children, and rationalizing that "its natural" is borderline crazy.

Decius wrote:

bucy wrote:

Under the new plan, called Pleistocene "re-wilding," close cousins and counterparts of the lost beasts, mostly from Africa, would be released into large, protected tracts of land and allowed to roam freely. Ideally, such actions would not only give parts of North America back an approximation of their long-ago megafauna diversity, they would also help save animals such as the African cheetah from extinction.

I heard about this on All Things Considered the other day. Wow ... just ... wow.

This is silly. The purpose of coservationalism is to make the planet sustainable for human life. No, we're not going to live happily along with things that eat people and no, its not reasonable. I presently think we ought to be looking at shark control technology in Florida. Putting free range Lions in America will absolutely result in dead children, and rationalizing that "its natural" is borderline crazy.

Actually, about 10 times as many people are killed per year worldwide by being hit on the head by falling coconuts than by sharks :P